A client of mine was phoned a few days ago by someone claimed to be phoning from BT. She was asked if she was using her computer between midnight and 4am. (They assume that most people will be asleep at that time). When she said she wasn’t using the computer, she was told that her computer had been hacked.

She was then told you that her computer was downloading illegal material. Clearly an attempt to frighten her. Fortunately she told the caller that she was too busy to turn on her computer. They were, apparently, rude to her and told her that she “had to turn it on”. Her reply was along the lines of “don’t speak to me like that in my own home” before telling the caller rather explicitly where to go and putting the phone down.

Don’t fall for these scammers. Regrettably if anyone with an Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi sounding accent calls you it is almost invariably a scam, especially if they try to tell you that they have an English sounding name.

On a personal note, what bugs me is that the Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi government(s) are perfectly well aware that these scammers exist. They aren’t individual scammers working from home, these are fully operational call centres. Yet the government(s) of the country/countries they are based in allow them to continue.